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What if Don Bluth stayed at Disney?/Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 33rd Disney animated feature film and the third released during the Disney Renaissance period, it is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont who was uncredited in the English version but credited in the French version, and ideas from the 1946 French film of the same name directed by Jean Cocteau. Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast (voice of Robby Benson), a prince who is magically transformed into a monster and his servants into household objects as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle (voice of Paige O'Hara), a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle to become a prince again. To break the curse, Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose or else the Beast will remain a monster forever. The film also features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury. Walt Disney first attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Beauty and the Beast into an animated film during the 1930s and 1950s. Following the success of The Little Mermaid (1989), Walt Disney Pictures decided to adapt the fairy tale, which Richard Purdum originally conceived as a non-musical. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg eventually dismissed Purdum's idea and ordered that the film be a musical similar to The Little Mermaid instead. The film was directed by Don Bluth, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton story first credited to Roger Allers. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken wrote the film's songs. Ashman, who additionally served as the film's executive producer along with Steven Spielberg, died of AIDS-related complications six months before the film's release, and the film is thus dedicated to his memory. Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, followed by its theatrical release as a completed film at the El Capitan Theatre on November 13. The film grossed $425 million at the box office worldwide on a $25 million budget. Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the first animated film to ever win that category. It also became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Pictureat the 64th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song and received additional nominations for Best Original Song and Best Sound. In April 1994, Beauty and the Beast became Disney's first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical. The success of the film spawned two direct-to-video follow-ups: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) and Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World (1998), both of which take place in the timeline of the original. This was followed by a spin-off television series, Sing Me a Story with Belle. An IMAX version of the film was released in 2002, and included "Human Again", a new five-minute musical sequence that was previously included in the 1994 musical. That same year, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King, the film was reissued in 3D in 2012. A live-action adaptation of the film directed by Bill Condon was released on March 17, 2017. Plot The film takes place in rural France, presumably in the late 18th century. In the film's prologue, an enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman offers a selfish young prince a rose in exchange for a night's shelter from the extreme cold (during Christmas as we later find out in the film's midquel), as a test of his heart and emotion. When he turns her away, repulsed by her old and ugly appearance and sneering at the simple but lovely gift, she turns into an Enchantress and punishes him by transforming him into an ugly beast and turns his servants into furniture and other household items, despite his pleas for forgiveness for his behavior. She gives him a magic mirror that will enable him to view faraway events and also gives him the rose, which will bloom until his 21st birthday. He must love and be loved in return before all the rose's petals have fallen off, or he will remain a beast forever. Ten years later, a beautiful but unusual young woman named Bellelives in a nearby unnamed French village with her father Maurice, who is an inventor. Belle loves reading and yearns for a life beyond the village. She is also the object of frequent unwanted attention and lust from the arrogant local hero, Gaston, who wants to marry her and make her his "little wife" who will bear him handsome sons, cook the food and scrub the floors. Maurice's latest invention is a wood-chopping machine. When he rides off to display the machine at the fair, he loses his way in the woods and stumbles upon the Beast's castle, where he meets the transformed servants Lumière (who was turned into a candelabra), Cogsworth (who was turned into a mantle clock), Mrs. Potts (who was turned into a teapot), her son Chip (who was turned into a teacup), and Fifi (who was turned into a feather duster). After getting used to seeing talking objects, the servants warm him by the fire, only to be found by the Beast, who is not happy to find a trespasser in his castle and frightens his servants. The Beast imprisons Maurice, but Belle is led back to the castle by Maurice's horse, Philippe, and offers to take her father's place. When the Beast agrees to this and sends him home, Maurice tells Gaston and the other villagers what happened, but they think he has lost his mind, so he goes to rescue her alone, but gets lost on his way back to the Beast's castle. Meanwhile, Belle refuses the Beast's "invitation" to dinner, and the Beast orders his servants not to let her eat, but Lumière serves her dinner anyway (in the song "Be Our Guest") and Cogsworth gives her a tour of the castle. However, she wanders off on her own and finds the West Wing, which the Beast had forbidden her to go into. She goes in anyway, discovering many broken items, including a shredded portrait of a young prince and the enchanted rose. Before she can touch it, the Beast sees her and angrily screams at her to get out. Frightened, Belle tries to escape, but she and Philippe are attacked by wolves. Suddenly, the Beast miraculously arrives at her rescue and fends off the wolves, showing that he may have some feelings towards her. After Belle nurses his wounds, he gives her the castle library as a gift, and they become friends. Later, they have an elegant dinner and a romantic ballroom dance. However, afterwards, Belle feels lonely at missing her father. When Beast lets her use the Enchanted Mirror, she sees her father dying in the woods as he struggles to come to her rescue, and with only hours left before the rose wilts, the Beast allows her to leave, giving her the mirror to remember him by. This horrifies the servants, who fear they will never be humans again. Belle finds Maurice and takes him home, but Gaston arrives with a lynch mob led by Monsieur D'Arque of the local insane asylum. Unless she agrees to marry Gaston, Monsieur D'Arque will lock her father up. Belle proves Maurice sane by showing them the Beast with the magic mirror, but when Belle furiously confronts Gaston after he mocks her for being in love with a "monster" by saying that he is the real monster, Gaston becomes jealous, snaps, and arouses the mob's fear of the Beast, leading them to the castle to kill him. Gaston locks Belle and Maurice in their basement, but Chip, who stowed away in Belle's luggage, chops the basement door apart with Maurice's machine, allowing Belle and Maurice to hurry back to the Beast's castle on Phillipe. While the servants and the mob battle for control of the castle, Gaston wanders off by himself and, finding the Beast, attacks him. By being too depressed to speak, the Beast unintentionally reinforces the preconception that he is dumb. The Beast regains his will when he sees Belle arriving at the castle. After winning a heated battle, the Beast spares Gaston's life and climbs up to a balcony where Belle is waiting. Unknown to them, Gaston has secretly followed the Beast and, still consumed by his lust for Belle and jealousy of the Beast, stabs him from behind, mortally wounding the Beast, but this proves to be his downfall as he loses his balance and falls off the balcony to his death. As Belle finds out that the Beast truly loves her as he lies on the ground, apparently dead from his injuries, she begins weeping over his loss and sadly whispers that she loves him, just as the final petal from the enchanted rose falls off, breaking the spell. Belle watches in amazement as the Beast is revived and turned back into a human. Belle studies him carefully, recognizing him as the man from the portrait in the West Wing, and seeing that he still has the same eyes, she says "It is you!" The two kiss, turning the servants human and transforming the castle back into its original elegance. The last scene shows Belle and the prince dancing in the ballroom as her father and the servants happily watch them, while Lumière and Cogsworth enter a feud. Voice cast * Robby Benson as Beast * Paige O'Hara as Belle * Richard White as Gaston * Jerry Orbach as Lumière * Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts * David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth/Narrator * Bradley Michael Pierce as Chip * Jesse Corti as LeFou * Rex Everhart as Maurice * Hal Smith as Philippe * Jo Anne Worley as Wardrobe * Kimmy Robertson as Fifi * Frank Welker as Footstool, aka Sultan * Mary Kay Bergman and Kath Soucie as the Bimbettes * Tony Jay as Monsieur D'Arque Production Early versions Script rewrite and musicalization Casting and recording Animation Music Release Re-issues Home media Reception Critical response Box office Accolades Adaptations Broadway musical Live-action film